By LEWIS KAMB, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, April 17, 2003

Not only would the proposal mean millions of dollars in future revenues for the Tulalip Tribes, it would also set a precedent for Indian tribes around the state -- and perhaps the nation.

But for the third straight year, a measure to allow the Tulalips to receive a cut of state sales taxes generated from purchases at its booming business park north of Marysville will die in the Legislature today.

Today's 5 p.m. cut-off for bills to be passed out of committee is simply a formality. House Bill 1879 is bottled up in the Senate Ways and Means Committee -- and it will not get out, the committee's chairman said yesterday.

"It's passed the deadline already," said Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah. "The committee is not going to reconvene."

In its current version, which the House approved 80-18 last month, the proposal would return 0.85 percent of state sales taxes collected at Quil Ceda Village -- the tribes' 495-acre business park along Interstate 5 in Snohomish County.

Quil Ceda now features Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores, as well as several other businesses that generated about $50 million in sales tax revenues in 2001.

Most of that money went to the state, with the rest to local governments.

Under the measure, local governments would share their cut of revenues with Quil Ceda.

By the tribes' estimates, that would have allowed them to receive $300,000 to $400,000 next year -- money the Tulalips say they need to provide basic services to Quil Ceda, including police and fire services, water and sewage, and roadway improvements.

With plans for major expansions -- including added businesses, a new hotel and a casino set to open at Quil Ceda in June -- future revenues generated under the measure would mean a substantially higher sum.

Perhaps more significantly, the measure would recognize Quil Ceda -- and any future Indian tribe's "political subdivisions" -- as the same "as other cities and towns within the state of Washington" for tax distribution purposes.

Two years ago, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the Tulalips' incorporation of Quil Ceda as a federal municipality.

"If any other municipality did what we did, it would be expected that they would share in the revenue streams," said Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, a tribe member and Quil Ceda's city manager.

But Rossi said his reason for allowing the bill to die isn't about whether Quil Ceda is a legitimate municipality or not.

"It is not a city, but that's not relevant," Rossi said. "It's going to cost the local government -- Snohomish County -- money. Local governments cannot afford to lose any money right now."

He added that several other bills that called to reduce revenues to local governments also are being held in his committee.

But McCoy noted that it has been the Tulalips -- not Snohomish County -- who have shouldered the costs for Quil Ceda projects, including highway improvements that directly benefit the county and Marysville.

"Snohomish County doesn't want to do any of the work, but they're more than willing to take the money generated from all of our hard work," he said.